Web 2.0 and Beyond « Association 2020

Posts filed under 'Web 2.0 and Beyond'

5 Reasons Twitter Gives Associations Much to Tweet About

Simply put, imagination and the desire to connect on some level are the forces which have fueled the social web. Though it’s been around for years, Twitter has exploded this year because of the convergence between creative users and industrious leveragers.

If your association is looking for a little boost in imagination in determining how to best utilize Twitter, here are 5 ways to give your association something to tweet about:

1) Tracking Trends in Real Time – A couple of months ago a situation arose in an association I am familiar with regarding a situation in which it was known that a groundswell of stakeholder opinion would arise as a very well pubilicized event was about to take place. There was plenty of concern as to how members would react once event publicity reached fever pitch. The association needed to very quickly gauge qualitatively and quantitatively the impact of this publicized event to determine the best response strategy.

Twitter became a primary resource as brief 140 character or less reviews began to spread like wild fire. Through a couple of well-monitored keywords on Twitter, the association was able to determine with a fair amount of conclusivity that opinions within the stakeholder community was divided right down the middle, trending toward a higher degree of positivity for those who had witnessed the publicized event and more intense negativity for those who had only learned of the event through secondhand information.

Given the quick timing and ease of use, Twitter is a great tool for monitoring fast-breaking trends.

2) Service-Based Strategies – Tracking conversations that arise regarding your association’s brand or related products/services is an easy way to execute some outbound member/prospective member service. Twitter is the quickest and easiest way to issue a public complaint about a bad experience. It used to be when you had a bad experience, the first thing you would want to do is find someone to tell all about the injustice. Today, all you need to do is log into Twitter and let it fly in 140 characters or less.

While this my be a troubling scenario should you find your association in the cross-hairs of this form of “drive-by tweet”, consider this… If the individual had a bad experience and told the next 10 people they crossed paths with there isn’t much you can do to rectify the situation. However, when someone vents a complaint via Twitter, you have the ability to pick up on it fast and reach out to turn the situation around.

Who should be responsible for monitoring Twitter for keywords relating to your association brand? Why not everyone based on their area of immediate responsibility and expertise. The key is to support such behavior, by example, from the top down. With some simple “rules of engagement” in place, you can empower your team to make the difference. Would it be any different if your staff was on-site at your association’s big conference and they saw someone struggling? Would you want your staff to keep their distance or move in to provide some appropriate help?

3) Harvesting Followers – Every follower is potentially a real and meaningful connection. If a Twitter user has jumped on board as a follower, make it a point to reach out @apersonallevel at least once. Take a few moments to review their list of most recent posts to get a little better idea what they are all about. Determine how you can make the most relevant connection.

4) Sweet Retweets - Once you have made a connection with followers, be sure to ask if they would be willing to participate as a “retweeter” in the future when your association is tweeting important posts. When they retweet, their network of followers will see the post as well. The exponential power of Twitter in reaching large masses of people becomes clearer when you consider the power of retweeting.

5) The Human Touch – When setting up your association’s Twitter presence, remember this… to make a personal connection requires two human beings connecting. Personality definitely counts and can only be achieved when your Twitter presence is comprised of identifiable people as opposed to a general @ACME Association identity.

When engaging in mass messaging via Twitter, default to the person who is your official spokesperson in the first place. If your highest ranking officer is willing to undergo media training to handle an assortment of print, radio or TV interviews, why not add in Twaining (Twitter training).

You can easily retain your brand acronym while Twittering at the human level. Simply create a standard convention, such as @ACMEPresident or @ACMEstaff_John or @ACMEstaff_Jane. Refer back to #2 for additional strategies on how to overcome @ACME Association syndrome. SM

3 comments July 9, 2009

My Thanks to SCSAE Annual Meeting Attendees and Leadership

I want to send out a special hello and expression of gratitude to the attendees of the 2009 South Carolina Society of Association Executives (SCSAE) Annual Conference as well as the leadership and staff of SCSAE, especially Executive Director Keely Yates. It was truly an honor to be in the presence of such a talented and devoted group of association professionals.

I also want to commend the Isle of Palms Wild Dunes Resort just outside of Charleston, South Carolina for providing such a wonderful and vibrant environment for SCSAE’s Annual Conference.

During this week’s conference, I had the opportunity to co-present a general session and CEO breakout session covering the development of volunteer and participation strategies, building upon key findings from ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership’s Decision to Volunteer study.

I also want to personally thank my experienced and knowledgeable co-presenter, Ron McNally, CAE, ASAE and the Center’s Chief Community & Volunteer Relations Officer.

In addition to the covering the key findings and implications of Decision to Volunteer, we also explored a framework for how to institutionalize a volunteer and participation strategy, focusing on volunteer activity audits, volunteer profiling/data management, recruitment techniques, volunteer placement, recognition and establishing a leadership pipeline.

We also discussed how “Social Media is Like Volunteerism on Steroids” emphasizing the importance of participant engagement, conversations, relationship-building and understanding that it’s okay to “lose control” with the proper goals and “rules of engagement”. To SCSAE Immediate Past President David Herndon’s delight, we also considered how the science of chemistry provides an analogy for how social media will strengthen our association’s sphere.

To the attendees reading this post, I invite you to comment below or follow-up with me directly if you have any more questions or observations to share. Beyond that, I truly hope our paths will cross again as we continue to build a strong future for associations.

Add comment June 16, 2009

How Social Media Broadens the Association Sphere and Transforms the “Nature” of our Future

With the announcement of the Google Wave, the internet’s newest and next “big thing”, many associations still continue to ponder whether or not social media threatens the very fabric of their existence.

My answer would be an emphatic ”absolutely not”. As our associations move rapidly to join our future… already in progress… the opportunity presented by social media for associations is just the opposite of threat.

Whereas the traditional “social sphere” of associations has been nestled within the physical core of actively involved members who like to get on airplanes and fly thousands of miles a year to get connected, social media will continue to expand and broaden our “social sphere” if we chose to reach out, engage and replace our tall ivory walls with a more transparent and porous material.

In other words, the tide of social media shifts our social sphere in a good way because the challenge of connecting and creating cohesion within our association’s broader professional community is now shared. Our job is to shed our illusion of control, celebrate those who are connecting outside our walls, reach out, be present, listen carefully, connect, build relationships and cultivate the type of powerful social capital which will draw those in the broader social sphere into the “nucleus” of the association.

Always remember, people complain because they care and simply want to be heard. There is immense and transforming power when you listen, engage, establish the conversation and watch the relationship grow.

Think of chemistry and how an atom is formed by a strong nucleus (the association) with electrons (traditionally loyal members) that are bound to the nucleus by “electromagnetic force”. An atom can be positively charged (progressive) or negatively charged (change averse). The social web is sending new types of atoms into the larger sphere within which associations have traditionally operated creating the opportunity of atoms joining together to form new and powerful elements. Elements are the building blocks of “nature” itself.

Let’s be very clear, people connect with the social web not because they want to be isolated and enjoy hearing themselves speak, but rather they are attempting to fulfill the basic human need to connect to something larger.

It is essential that we transform and expand our thinking in knowing that social media strategy is a relationship-building and engagement strategy which should be driven by the mission and goals of the association. In addition to serving members we are now in the position to reach farther in connecting with and serving a larger sphere of participants and influencers… all of which are prospective electrons moving toward that electromagnetic force which will ultimately draw them toward the nucleus. Staff at all levels, with basic rules of engagement, have the opportunity to monitor, listen and make these connections.

Further, think of non-member social web participants and influencers in your space as “surrogates” who care and want to be heard. The bar is not as high as one might think in creating relationships that will move these individuals into the role of promoter and prospective member.

Remember, control is an illusion and the next time a discussion of social media turns to fear and threat, you can now tell the group to not worry because it’s positively “elemental”.

You may now be excused to connect with your former high school chemistry teacher on Facebook to thank them for making you suffer.

1 comment June 4, 2009

The Role of the Emotional Value Proposition in Cultivating Member Loyalty and Activism

Paris Balcony_b&w photograph by Stuart Meyer

If there was one thing an association marketing team must do is put the general principles of behavioral economics into practice at all levels of strategy, tactics and relationships.

Behavioral economics reveals the power of emotion in decision-making even in the presence of rational facts. Think of it as what I termed a couple of years ago as Association EQ or the Emotional Value Proposition (EVP). Decision-making behavior of any kind is as much comprised of our impulsive emotional psychology as it is our ability to rationalize or think logically.

Allot of associations do a good job of skimming the surface of logical behavior through research in constructing their practical value proposition, but many miss the significant opportunity to venture deeper into the layers of emotional psychology which drives motivation and behavior beyond the bounds of practical value.

Satisfy a member’s intellectual need and they may hang on for a little longer. Cultivate a humanizing emotional connection between the member and your association and you might have them as a loyal member and promoter for life… or as long as they still like what they do for a living.

To me, great marketing is about making a human connection at a personal level which results in a sense of belonging. Doing so can be achieved through direct interactions or by indirect emotive multi-sensory storytelling. An example of the first would include traditional one-to-one networking or the considerable opportunities presented by online networking-based social media. An example of the second would be a powerful story told via a fusion of messaging, sight and/or sound, such as a documentary video.

At a primitive level, member loyalty is rooted in a two-way sense of caring, I care about the association because I perceive through my experiences that the association cares about me, not just as a professional but most importantly as a human being.

As human beings, when we care about something we also tend to become protective of its interest. For associations, this translates into voluntary activist behavior which serves to either promote the association or defend it against detractors. Keep thinking the value and potential of making personalized human connections via social media and suddenly Twitter will start to make allot of sense.

Don’t think any of this is true? Try the following questions during your next focus group or one-on-one interview, sit forward and listen carefully to the responses:

- How does it “feel” to be a member of this profession?

- How does it “feel” when you are practicing this profession on any given day?

- How does it “feel” to be a member of this association?

- How does it “feel” to be at this conference?

- When you interact with members, how does it make you “feel”?

- When you interact with association staff, how does it make you “feel”?

- When you interact with leaders of this association, how does it make you “feel”?

- How does it “feel”… you get the idea.

One additional bonus note, behavioral economics not only applies to the role of emotional psychology in the decision-making process of members but also the actions of board leaders, senior management, internal departments, colleagues, direct reports, indirect reports, external stakeholders, media, the general public, neighbors, relatives, husbands, wives, children and even the DMV. In other words, any member of the human race.

In closing, here are two of my favorite guiding quotes when it comes to the emotional complexity of human decision making as it relates to marketing or any endeavor:

“I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.” Unknown

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

Add comment May 7, 2009

Social Media’s Impact on the Lifetime Value of Non-Members and Lapsed Members

For years, associations have been contemplating and calculating the lifetime value of a member. In other words, the measure of the tangible value of a member who maintains her membership over a period of time minus the cost of servicing that membership.

As we continue to move rapidly through the not-so-new frontier of the social web, we need to also look at another important lifetime value measure… that is the lifetime value of non-members and lapsed members. The truth is we should have been looking at this particular measure even before the arrival of the social web years ago.

Why you might ask? First, because word-of-mouth marketing has been around since the dawn of spoken language. An individual need not be a paying member, or customer, to create or detract value from your association.

If favorable impressions about your association resides within the hearts and minds of non-members and lapsed members alike, there is always a higher likelihood that they would have favorable perspectives to share with their friends and colleagues that may influence tangible behavior. Likewise, if unfavorable thoughts about your association occupy that expanse between the skull and the chest cavity of lapsed members and non-members, then there is an even higher likelihood that word-of-mouth communication will take place… the brand of communication that keeps association executives up at night.

Enter, stage right, the social web. Given the expansive reach of communication and interaction offered to virtually anyone with a computer and Internet connection, the sphere of influence impacting our association’s subject-matter has grown well beyond the walls of membership. As such, the traditional notions of value creation has moved well beyond the tangible contributions of loyal members into the intangible, yet influential sphere of the social web.

Members are no longer the only game in town when it comes to value creation and influence. While members are the cherished core of our associations, we must expand our perspective and reach and engage the many influencers and, yes, detractors that are out there talking either directly or indirectly about our associations. Remember, legitimate detractors most often complain because they care enough to participate and want to be heard. With that said, be careful to not confuse reasonable detractors with incoherent crazies.

There is also the layer of lurking participants who may not be out there creating content, but are certainly tuning in.

Your association’s social media strategy should factor in the tangible and intangible value of those lapsed members and non-members who are both visible and active out on the social web. Even more, if you make the right connection you stand to gain even more than the value-generating relationship, conversation and content… you might actually win them back or bring them on board for the very first time as members as well as their followers.

By now, I’m sure some of you have already asked the inevitable question… “Sounds great, but how do you measure the lifetime value of lapsed members and non-members?”. The answer depends on your association’s defined measures for success relating to social media strategy. It’s not always immediate dollars as social media is relationship and conversation-based marketing by its very nature. Put another way, it’s like planting seeds to fertile soil which you nurture and cultivate.

However, there are measures including:

- Web analytics, links, demographics, ratings, Technorati ranking of content sources, qualitative comment analysis, content timing and more..

COMPARED to:

- Membership growth, inbound web traffic, conference registration, product sales and much more.

Another way to measure offline value creation would be to develop benchmark snapshots of membership and customer geography (city, county, state, region, country) and track increasing/decreasing trends over time. While the social web is universal, we all have a geographic point of origin which is our physical social sphere.

Don’t forget that you can actively track re-captured members. Further, you can create “customer” records in your AMS for key social web influencers/participants and run periodic anlaysis to see who has joined.

There’s still the good old-fashioned means of asking new members and customers how they first learned about your association. Beyond the generic social media sources (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc) to specific blogs or other social communities run by key influencers.

The most important consideration is to be creative, experimental and open-minded as you fight off the temptation to become paralyzed by the illusion of perfection.

Add comment May 5, 2009

The Secret of Successful Association Social Media Strategy

While there are many elements which comprise an overall association social media strategy, there is one which in my mind stands above all others. That element is creativity. I’ll believe creativity is the single factor which will ensure the success of all other factors.

The social web offers a world of limitless possibilities and opportunities for all types of assocations and organizations. At the same time, there are two major challenges facing associations:

Challenge 1: Organizational adaptability required to embrace new models for communication, relationship-building and share of control.

Challenge 2: Mapping the larger association-related social web network of participants, groups and stakeholders.

I believe creativity is the secret in overcoming resistance and unlocking new opportunities. Reason being, the “DNA” of extended social networks relating to your specific organization is unique based upon the people and issues at play.

There is not a “one-size-fits-all” model for where you should be and what you should be doing. Even more, the social “tide” is constantly shifting. Rather than approach from a benchmarking methodology, it’s important to be creative in identifying, seizing upon and reaching your objectives by engaging the social web in a meaningful way. Often, as you move forward, it will require you to act and operate in new and unprecedented ways. You cannot simply take your traditional association model of top-down control and apply it to the social web.

Second, creativity often represents the very best in open-minded thought process which ensures fair consideration, exploration and experimentation of all possibilities. Further, creative thought helps you move beyond the traditional groupthink into envisioning new models, networks and ways of advancing mission.

The bottom line is we cannot apply the traditional model nor can we simply keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. Throughout time, creativity has been the key to unlocking new opportunities and possibilities in building a stronger future. In the realm of the social web, this truth has never been so important.

There is great reward out there for those associations who can imagine the possibilities of the social web in creating their future.

Add comment April 27, 2009

Is Web 2.0 to 2008 What Dot-Com was to 1998?

I received an email survey today from a major association who many have held for some time as the best example of professional communities of practice. Though I’m not a practitioner in their particular field, I did join this association community a year ago just to have a closer look. I must admit, the space well-designed and pretty cool by association standards.

However, in reading between the lines of this particular survey invitation, with statements like “we are looking to make these communities more valuable to you”, I can’t help but wonder if the expectations of staff and leadership might be as disappointed as Chicago Cubs fans earlier this Fall.

As aspiring association pioneers, we have been basking in the promising glow of Web 2.0 for a few years now working toward opening those magical gates for the certain masses to spill through into our mall of participation. However, is the practice and application of Web 2.0 living up to its revolutionary hype with big returns for associations?

To me, the answer to this question is affirmatively…well… pretty inconsequential here on October 28, 2008 if we all, in fact, learned the lessons of the dot-com crash in the late 1990s. However, in many ways I believe many are approaching the Web 2.0 “rush” in the same way we are charged toward dot-com mania. There are a number of intriguing parallels betwen these two interent eras, the most significant of which is the notion that the peverbial “carts” have been set far up the road ahead of the “horses”.

It takes me back to my theory of evolutionary vs. revolutionary change. The dot-com era was a time of revolutionary action where many smart people lost their long-term perspective and paid a miserable price in many cases. It’s not that dot-coms and online commerce were poor business concepts as we have learned, rather they drowned in unrealistic expectations and flawed short-term money-hungry business models in an infantile marketplace where users/consumers, aka the “horses”, had not comfortably caught up with the rest of the insider world. Put another way, it was like the ultimate get-rich quick scheme with an entirely undeveloped consumer audience which was still a couple of years away from reaching critical mass, trust and high speed connectivity.

So, with these thoughts in mind, let’s turn our attention to Web 2.0 and the social web. Here we are, perhaps partying a bit like its 1999, prematurely celebrating the next big chapter in the history of the internet before it has ripened for mass consumption. In other words, while I strongly believe the opportunity of Web 2.0 is very real for our associations, I think we are still somewhere in the early-to-mid phases of its evolution which explains what might be a slow and perhaps sluggish growth curve. But fear not, this is a long-term strategy and the early adopters and developers are beginning to make room for the masses. We must be patient in managing expectations and projected growth within our associations and throughout our leadership. Further, we must not lose our minds and move our headquarters into Second Life overnight. We must be willing to experiment and cultivate particiaption within our audiences. Finally, we must calculate and adjust our risks as we take steps toward reaching critical mass.

The day will come and let’s make sure we are all around to celebrate the richness of our interactive online worlds of participation, otherwise, we risk writing the history of the great Web 2.0 crash. SM

Add comment October 28, 2008

The Great Web 2.0 Evolution Within the Web Me.0 World

Over the past couple of years, the term Web 2.0 has become a household buzz word within our associations and the larger world. As in the early dot.com days, the promise and potential of Web 2.0 has become the well-hyped social media darling of the online world. Yet, there continues to be struggle over how to flip the peverbial switch in leveraging and mainstreaming these social technologies for the rest of the world. At the same time, users of ”sit forward” online technology are still somewhat skiddish in terms of pledging online trust and so many still prefer the comfortable confines of anonymity.

On the other side of the aisle, the expectations that the ”harvest” of web 2.0 potential will somehow be reaped overnight has led to premature impatience and skepticism.

Based on learning and observation to present day, my belief is Web 2.0 and the social web, in general, is still in its infancy and is far from reaching full maturity in terms of value and engagement… not just for the association world, but also for the for-profit world as well. However, in my mind that is the natural evolution of any technology.

We’ve been feverishly constructing Web 2.0 and 3.0 worlds, when all along what we’ve needed to focus on is the Web Me.0 world. The same basic public relations principle of “so what, who cares, what’s in it for me” is highly applicable to the evolutionary change process occurring in the true Web Me.0 world.

One thing I’ve learned about change, in general, is there is often considerable lag time between visualization and realization. Measure it however you want, whether it be radio-to-tv or dial-up-to-dsl… we must accept the fact that even the most ground-breaking innovations take time to find status quo critical mass within the mainstream. Patience and progression are essential virtues of the day.

Why does it take time? Well, since we are heading out of summer, I’ll use a vacation analogy. Visualize the last time you sat on a semi-crowded beach in front of the ocean during off-season. The sun is shining, the waves crashing, yet most people remain on the beach. For those who venture into the water, they typically take quite a bit of time to slowly adjust to the temperature while at the same time mentally assessing how far they are willing to venture out into greater depths. However, there is always the courageous few who will see the ocean’s allure and sprint full stride toward the water, splashing wildly as the water begins to obstruct motion and diving face forward toward that first set of small crashing waves for the decisive plunge into the cool depths.

Over time, as the months go by and the season change, the heat of summer eventually returns, the water temperatures rise, the beaches become more crowded and eventually most people take to the water… why? because the conditions are ideal, peer pressure is moving the crowd toward the water and, ultimately, the transition is far more comfortable and relaxed.

The translation is we must realize that the summer season for the social web is on the way and we all must begin by testing the waters. Further, we must be careful to pace rather than drown ourselves in the mad rush out into the water.

More importantly, while we might be able to invent all sorts of clever whiz-bang social web applications, widgets and worlds, we must never forget the mainstream Web Me.0 world whose measure will always be real world relational value based upon the age-old principle of “so what, who cares, what’s in it for me”.

The good news is I believe a killer set of waves are forming off-shore and setting a course toward our association shore. SM

Add comment September 3, 2008

The De-massification, De-centralization and Deconstruction of Association Participation

In many ways, associations for years have operated with a limited set of entry points were members come together en mass, almost as a seemingly invitation-only pseudo private club of connected people pariticipating in broad mass-justifying topics.

In the future, I believe associations who will build a strong future will do so by tearing the gates down and creating a broad variety of entry points for members, to keep participation from becoming an exercise in bottleneck traffic. Even more, once inside the gates, the expectation won’t be that the magic kingdom is entirely built out. Rather, passionate members, especially those with narrow niche interests which cannot be served via a prioritization of formal resources, will build these aspects of the community themselves.

How will this be accomplished? It’s already happening via the emergence of organic online communities catering to virtually every conceivable interest and connecting like-minded people in the web 2.0 world. Early web 3.0 technologies, such as Twine, will intensify and speed up the process of interlacing all angles of relevancy for narrower niche interests (you probably already have by now, but think of a big ball of tightly wound twine). Globalization will give way to localization as people with like interests will be able to better each other in coming together. Suddenly, that 1% of your membership with a very narrow and highly specialized area of interest/focus will be able to help build and connect in a robust community within the boundaries of your association… perhaps trumping the power of more larger and more traditional formal groups.

The reality associations must consider as soon as is humanly possible is these communities can spring up in one of two places… inside your assocation or outside of your association. Chances are, they’ve been sprouting all around the outer perimeter of your association already.

Management strategy will move from a model of prioritizing limited resources to formal mass projects catering to broad segments to a role of informal enabling and managed de-centralization of grassroots organic community. Boards will retain governance and fiduciary obligations, but I believe they will move more into a role of democratized community facilitation with expanded participation by members at all levels of the spectrum. Perhaps the association of the future will be more like the United Nations and less like Congress.

Thought leaders, such as Chris Anderson in his book The Long Tail, see the rise of niches as contibuting to the de-massification of society into their intended narrow channels of interest. It’s happening all around us and, fortunately, is a trend which will create boundless opportunity for associations. SM

Add comment August 25, 2008

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